


A Final Favor

by Thatonegothynerd



Series: Adventures of The Scarred [21]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Character Death, Death, Death from Old Age, F/M, Old Age
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:46:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22456684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatonegothynerd/pseuds/Thatonegothynerd
Summary: Avarice is eighty-six years old and feels that her end is near, but she has one last favor to cash in before she's gone.
Relationships: avarice/dragomir
Series: Adventures of The Scarred [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1232936
Kudos: 1





	A Final Favor

It was a beautiful summer day; warm and sunny with fluffy clouds lazily making their way across the azure sky. Avarice lay in her bed covered in dark green satin sheets and looked out the open window of Kel’s guest bedroom, wishing she could spend one more day out in the sun. She remembered picnics with Kel, Millicent, Dragomir, Al, and Sybille in the forest near Kel’s home. Sybille always insisted on making a desert which was inevitably inedible, but Avarice would always smuggle something from the local bakery into the basket as well. She remembered afternoons gathering flowers with her children, sometimes from wild plants and sometimes stolen out of gardens of disgruntled country people. She remembered cloud watching with Dragomir, laying next to him and pointing out the shapes going by above. He didn’t quite understand why she enjoyed it so much, but he was always happy to see a genuine smile on her face. But all of that seemed years away, and some of it was. 

Avarice was eighty-six years old now and a life of adventure had begun to take its toll. She had traveled with Dragomir since they said their “I dos” nearly sixty years ago, killing monsters and taking on much dreaded tasks for The Clasp when they couldn’t be avoided. For the first thirty or so years they traveled with Von, who wanted to see the surface world and learn from Dragomir, but eventually the violence and constant travel became too much for him. He wanted to settle down and live a domestic life. Avarice and Dragomir couldn’t blame him for that, so they did what they could. Von became the head of The Go Oasis spa chain, and eventually Avarice gave him her share of the company. He insisted that it was too much, but she wouldn’t hear it. She saw how much good was in him and wanted to give him the best chance for his future and, though she would never admit it, Von would do better things with that money than she ever would. She was a selfish person at her core, and she knew that, but Von was not. She hoped that he would do good with the extra funds in ways that never would have occurred to her. 

For the three decades that followed Von’s departure, Avarice and Dragomir traveled alone, and while they traveled, Avarice wrote. She wrote story after story of the adventures The Scarred had gone on, both big and small. The heroes all had their real names: Kel, Dragomir, Millicent, Tal, Sybille, Immerel, Peony, and even Kleo had their names put down in her pages. She wrote of their bravery and sacrifice. She portrayed them as a group committed to doing what was right. In other words, there was some slight embellishment on her part. The Scarred became a common name to the people of the continent, there were songs written about them and even a few plays. They were the heroes no one knew about. They did all of their work behind closed doors and saved your life without you even knowing. It wasn’t the fame or the money that drove her heroes on the page, but the knowledge that they were helping people. No one knew Avarice herself had written these stories as the author, Aris Kearnry seemed to be a very real person. A few suspected that something was off, but there was never any proof Aris wasn’t real. Kel was furious when the first book was published. They insisted Avarice was lying to the public, but she brushed it off with an “aren’t I always?” Kel was sent every book in the series after that with the author’s signature and a kiss on the first page. Tal was also somewhat incensed and sent the book back to her with factually accurate notes on each page, detailing what was wrong. Avarice never said, but she had kept that book ever since, touched that Tal had cared so much about it. 

It was after nearly fifty years of traveling that someone new entered Avarice’s life. She and Dragomir were on a mission in Kymal when they found a small child on the street. The poor thing was frightened for her life and nearly starving. She was a Kenku, a bird person that could not produce her own words and when asked her name she simply replied with a squishing noise. Avarice couldn’t stand to leave her there, and so she and Dragomir resolved to keep her with them until they could find her a good and safe home. It soon became very clear that Avarice and Dragomir loved this child, so Squish became the first officially adopted Butcher. She traveled with them, excelling at the roguish activities of her mother being both extremely observant and quiet. Avarice taught her adopted daughter well, but managed to steer her clear of her own underground mistakes. It wasn’t too long after Squish’s adoption that they found a young dwarven boy in the hills on their travels completely alone. His name was Oskar and at first glance Avarice knew he belonged in her family. And that is what she finally had, a family. She had her two loving children and her husband, and those last ten years on the road were some of the happiest years of her life. Those last ten years had made the first twenty-five years of hell worth it.

But now, looking out the window to this beautiful sunny day, Avarice could feel the end drawing near. She was so tired. They had stopped in Westrunn nearly three months ago when she had started to not feel so well and she knew that this time, she would not leave. They had originally been staying at The Go Oasis, but Dragomir and Kel had insisted she move into Kel and Millicent’s house so that she could be looked after. They had started out optimistic that she would get better, that this was a temporary setback. It wasn’t. She had progressively gotten worse, not better. Dragomir had pleaded with her to let Millicent use magic to help her, but she had refused. They had decided together years ago that she would live her normal lifespan and die when her time came. When asking her hadn’t worked, he had asked Millicent to do something, begged her to save Avarice in some way, but she had refused, not wanting to do anything against her friend’s wishes. She could see the fear in his eyes, fear of losing her and living without her. It was something she almost never saw in him and she hated that she is the one that put that fear there. 

The past three months had been painstaking to say the least. She had to listen to Kel holding onto the delusion that she would get better and Millcent attempting to nurse her and make her more comfortable. Dragomir almost never left her side, playing nurse to Millicent’s doctor, something Avarice really had never expected out of him. He treated the wizard’s words like gospel as he administered her medicines and creams to keep the pain away any hour of the day she needed them. The worst part was having to lie to her children. Squish was fourteen and Oskar just barely twelve. Von had also arrived to see Avarice as soon as he had heard word of her condition. She lied through her teeth to all of them. No, she wasn’t in pain. Yes, she was going to get better. She felt just a little bit stronger every day. The lies, she thought, would be a comfort to them. Much better than knowing the truth of how little time she had left. 

Yes, Avarice thought, still looking at the clouds out her window, her time was almost up. There was just one thing she had to do before she was gone. One last favor to call in. 

“Dragomir,” she said, turning towards her husband in his usual spot in the chair by her bed. “Can you run down to the shop and fetch me a strawberry tart? From that little bakery on the corner?” This had become a routine for her, inventing things she needed so he would be forced to leave her side, even if it was only momentary. His misery now would only be worse when she was gone. He needed to be away from her for a bit. To interact with different people, people that weren’t dying. 

“Of course, Princess,” he said, getting up and kissing her cheek softly. 

“Oh and can you ask Kel to come here?” she said as he walked out.

“Of course,” he said, turning back with eyebrow slightly raised in confusion.

She smiled at him as he left the room. As soon as he was out of view her smile slipped. She was already dreading this conversation, but she knew it was one she had to have. She could hear Kel approaching her room long before the drow rounded the corner, bemused expression on their face.

“You wanted to see me?” They said.

“Yes. Please, Kel, close the door and sit,” she responded. 

Kel did as they were told, confusion unchanging as Avarice listened to the sound of Dragomir leaving the house. She waited for his footsteps to fade completely before she spoke.

“Kel, I don’t have that much longer and I -”

“No. No, you’re going to be fine. I’m working on a potion right now that should-” the started.

“We both know that’s bullshit Kel,” she said, leaving no room for argument. “I’m not going to get better. I’m past that. I’ve lived eighty-six years. That’s so many more than so many people get, especially in my line of work. I can count the adventurers and monster hunters I know that lived to a ripe old age on one hand. I’m not scared of dying, Kel.”

“You’re not going to-” they tried to object.

“Yes. Yes I am. And I’m trying to tell you I’m okay with that.” 

Avarice could see her friend trying unsuccessfully to hide the tears welling up in their eyes as she spoke. 

“I’m okay with death. What I’m more scared about is...,” she paused for a long moment, carefully considering her words. “What I’m scared of is what I’m leaving behind. You, Tal, Millicent,” there was another pause, “Von, Squish, Oskar, Dragomir.”

“Avarice,” Kel said, finally accepting her words, “We don’t want you to go, but we’ll be okay. We’ll keep living.”

“I know,” Avarice said, tears now in her eyes, “but before I’m gone, I need to cash in a final favor. A favor from you Kel.”

“Are you serious?” They asked, standing up from their chair. “When did I even accrue a debt from you? Where did I make a bargain with you? This is some bullshit. Laying here, saying you’re going to die and suddenly I  _ owe  _ you?”

“It’s not sudden,” Avarice said, trying her best to sit herself up in bed. Recclined as she was she felt like she had no power in the situation. “Sixty-one years, three months and two days ago we made a bargain in the city of Emon and now I want to collect. I never forget a deal, Kel. Never.”

The drow sighed and helped her sit up in bed, quietly resigning themself. “Alright. Fine. What’s this favor?”

“When my father died, all those years ago, the saddest thing about his death wasn’t the way he died, which was horrid and senseless. It wasn’t his final resting place. It was that, after he was gone, there was no one left that remembered Dryden Brigand, at least not in any meaningful way. There was just me. I was the only one left that seemed to want to tell his story. I’ve tried my best to tell it well, but, Kel, “Avarice said, tears flowing freely now, “I don’t want that to be me. I… I’m so scared of being forgotten. I don’t want my kids to forget me. I don’t want… I don’t want him…” sobs overtook her before she could finish that final thought, but Kel knew who she meant. 

Kel sat next to her on the bed and placed a comforting hand on hers, in a rare show of physical affection from them. She took their hand and gripped it tightly in response, not looking them in the eyes. 

“I want them to live their lives and to be able to go on without me,” she continued after a moment, “but I don’t want to be forgotten. I know it’s a lot to ask, Kel. It’s a hell of a lot to ask of anyone, but I’m asking you to not let me be forgotten. I spent so much of my life being hated or ignored, I don’t want to be forgotten after I die.”

Kel wasn’t quite sure how to respond. They had done many foolish things in the past for Avarice and because of Avarice. There were a million things a favor to her could have entailed, but they had never imagined this. 

“I don’t think anyone that’s met you could forget you if they tried, Avarice, and I’m sure many have tried,” they eventually responded. “I don’t think your family could ever forget you. I don’t think I…,” they didn’t finish, but Avarice knew what they meant. “I promise you, Avarice. I won’t let you be forgotten. Not like that will be hard with how many books about yourself you’ve written.”

That got a chuckle from Avarice and Kel sighed in relief. Good, they thought. If they could make her laugh, everything was still okay. She was still okay.

“You’re a good friend, Kel. You know for a drow,” she said, that lovely wicked smile on her face.

“And you’re a pretty decent friend, Avarice. You know for a liar, a thief, a bitch-”

“If you’re just going to list my wonderful personality traits, I would recommend leaving my bed first, before things get too hot and heavy. I am a married woman,” she said.

Kel stood up, rolling their eyes, but secretly amazed by how she managed to still be a total flirt on her deathbed. 

“Of course. I wouldn’t want to come between the two of you,” Kel said, leaving her room.

“That’s not what you said in the past,” she called after them. They flipped her off as they crossed the doorway and left. 

Avarice looked out the window once more and noticed the sun had begun to set. The bright blue of the sky was turning slowly but surely into oranges, reds, and purples. Downstairs she could hear Squish and Oskar talking. Oskar was trying to explain a new move that Dragomir had taught him to Von and Emmeline, while Squish explained how he was doing it wrong using Dragomir’s voice. She could hear Millicent in the kitchen and Kel joined her and the two began discussing potion ingredients again, just as they had been before. She felt very peaceful in that moment. There was nothing left she needed to do. No favors owed. No debts to be repaid. She could sleep soundly knowing everything was taken care of. 

Soon she heard the front door open and a familiar set of footsteps came up the stairs. Dragomir reentered the room, strawberry tart in hand. He set it on her bedside table and began to head back to his chair, but she beckoned him to the bed. 

He sat next to her, slightly reclined, and she rested her head on his chest. He placed an arm around her and pressed a kiss into her now very grey hair. She placed her left hand on his chest and saw her wedding ring. The tiny tiara still so shiny and beautiful. Marrying Dragomir was the best thing that had ever happened to her. He raised his other hand to cover hers as she began to fall asleep. 

“I love you, Dragomir, always,” she said, just before she drifted off for the final time. 

“I love you too, Princess.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to everyone that's taken the time to read about The Scarred over the past year. I didn't really expect anyone outside of my campaign to read my stories, nevertheless enjoy them, yet here you are! Thank you if you've read every story about Avarice and her friends (that's almost 38,000 words about them!), or if you're just here for this one. Thank you for reading and making a space in your heart for my chaotic tiefling girl. It's been a blast writing her story and I hope some of you stick around to see who I play next. Who knows, this might not be the last you see of Avarice Brigand-Butcher.


End file.
